Teenagers Star in the Story of Their Lives, Painful Details and All

By KATIE ZEZIMA

Published: October 15, 2005

Daria is the classic high school overachiever: straight A's, sports records and loads of other impressive credentials while still managing time for a cute new boyfriend.

But the pressure to be perfect is slowly weighing her down, as are circumstances she can't change. Daria is a black girl adopted by a white family living in an overwhelmingly white state. Students in baggy jeans call her ''Sista,'' and blond girls ask if she's African. Her boyfriend must choose between his dream of studying poetry at college and his father's wish that he take over the struggling family farm.

Daria is both a teenage clich?nd the embodiment of seldom spoken truths here. She is also a fictional character, but to Ruby Rose Burns, 17, Daria is the first fictional creation whose life reflects her own.

''There are a lot of similarities between me and the character,'' said Ruby, who is black and was adopted by a white family. ''I want to say exactly what she gets to say.''

Daria is one of 21 characters who emerged from the Voices Project, a two-year undertaking that chronicled the lives of Vermont teenagers through interviews, artwork, poetry, music and oral histories. It culminated with a musical starring 21 teenagers, including Ruby, who plays Daria. The production is ending a tour of 11 towns over 6 weekends with a show on Oct. 15 at Johnson State College in Johnson, Vt.

A filmmaker, Bess O'Brien, and an actress, Abby Paige, reached out to hundreds of teenagers at schools, youth centers, homeless shelters, a juvenile detention center and other organizations throughout the state, asking them to submit original work and sit for interviews. The goal, the organizers said, was to have the young people convey their hopes, fears, dreams and the issues they face growing up in a state that many adults view as utopian and that teenagers liken to a boring cage they can't wait to flee, one with few entertainment options and fewer newcomers.

''I think the challenge we had was to really come across as wanting to create an authentic concept of what teenagehood is, not coming in and judging kids,'' Ms. O'Brien said. ''It's taking a glimpse at 21 kids in a Vermont town, and what their lives are like, and how they struggle to make a go of it.''

Ms. O'Brien and Ms. Paige wrote the two-hour production, based on sessions with their subjects. The story is authentic, they and the cast members said, because teenagers were involved throughout the creative process: writing songs, revising scenes in workshops and throwing in fresh ideas.

''They were our truth meters,'' Ms. Paige said. ''We took some 'groovys' out. We worked really hard to get feedback from kids over and over again, to make sure the sound of the language rang true.''

More than 100 teenage actors auditioned throughout the state. Those chosen spent three weeks at Johnson State College in the summer, working on the show.

Ms. O'Brien and Beth Lewis, director of communications at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont, the project's main sponsor, developed the idea while touring with ''Here Today,'' Ms. O'Brien's documentary about heroin use in the state. Audiences would often ask Ms. O'Brien what drove teenagers to use the drug, questions that piqued her interest in young people and the pressures they face.

The teenagers' tales of drug use, pregnancy, cutting themselves, peer pressure and negative self-images were staggering, she said, but there were also stories of love, achievements and aspirations.

All are reflected in the characters: the popular jock who cuts himself, the homeless couple who pick fast food out of a garbage can, the girl with workaholic parents who pops antidepressants, the documentary-making social activist, the boy from the wrong side of the tracks whose well-to-do girlfriend becomes pregnant.

Some characters, like Vita, an overweight dancer who struggles with self-esteem and body image issues, are based on one person or story. Annalise Shelmandine, 16, was the inspiration for Vita and plays her onstage, an experience she described as empowering and frightening.

''The hard part is that it's me,'' Annalise said. ''Almost everything about me is being told, and all those people out there don't really know that it's me. These are real lives.''

Other characters are composites: the fundamentalist Christian whose father is heading to Iraq; the freshman who is constantly teased and commits suicide; and his best friend, a hyperactive tornado since his parents ''went all organic'' and stopped his attention deficit disorder medications. There's also a black gay genius who hopes to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology but must sling burgers to afford it.

The show presents the quirks of Vermont life, from the lack of cellphone reception to jokes about Burlington, the ''big city'' with 39,000 residents. ''There's a sense that real life isn't happening here, where they live, that real life is happening somewhere else,'' Ms. Paige said, adding, ''It seems that the only way they can participate in real life is to leave.''

The Voices Project show also has harsh moments, with pervasive profanity, scenes of drinking and one of pot smoking. The actors say it does reveal the lives they lead, or they wouldn't be missing school and their social lives while it tours.

''There's no sugarcoating, which is good,'' said Nathaniel Hill, 15, who plays Danny, the boy who commits suicide. ''It's not preachy. It's not saying, 'Don't do drugs' or 'Do drugs.' No one reprimands the girl who gets pregnant. No one tells the girl who pops pills not to do them.''

Everyone involved in the project expected it to lead to controversy, but the opposite has been true, they said.

''We've had parents come up who love the play and said that it opened up a conversation over the dinner table about topics they felt uncomfortable about or didn't know were going on,'' Ms. O'Brien said.

For instance, at the performance at Bellows Falls Union High School in this working-class town of 3,000 in central Vermont, Jane Davis took the youth group from St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Chester, Vt., in the hope, she said, that the play would initiate a dialogue between the teenagers and adults who watched the play with them.

''It's intense,'' Ms. Davis said. ''It doesn't hide anything. You just hope to be able to use this shared experience as a basis for conversation.''

Photos: Ruby plays Daria, who, like herself, was adopted by a white family in Vermont.; Ruby Rose Burns, left, Monique Hyman and Sophia Lapaglia preparing to go onstage during a tour stop in Bellows Falls, Vt.; A scene from the Voices Project production, a collaboration involving the cast members and adults. (Photographs by Caleb Kenna for The New York Times)